CLEVELAND – With a different result in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, it’s an all-time embarrassing playoff moment for the White Sox.
With two on and one out in the sixth, Tommy Pham unloaded on a Erik Sabrowski fastball. Both he and the White Sox dugout reacted like a back-breaking three-run homer had been hit. Miguel Vargas, the team’s “best baserunner” per manager Will Venable, assumed it was at least a double off Progressive Field’s high left field wall, and had already rounded second when Guardians left fielder Angel Martinez made a leaping catch.
Vargas was easily doubled off to end the inning, Pham stared out in disbelief, and the White Sox burned a replay challenge that wound up confirming the catch. What a blunder.
Or was it an all-time aberrant result, which wound up not mattering in a 3-0 Sox triumph in Game 1?
“I’ve hit enough to know what is a homer, what should be a homer, and what isn’t,” Pham told the Sun-Times. “Everybody in our dugout was confused there, [with] 106 mph pulled like that. I hit a ball here two weeks ago that went 420 feet that I hit similar to that. This ball I pulled it more.”
The 38-year-old Pham is experienced enough to know what a homer feels like, and data-savvy enough to know metrics back him up. His fly out checked in at 106.1 mph at a 31-degree angle. A Statcast search reveals that of the 82 balls hit 106 mph or harder at 31 degrees this year in MLB, 81 were home run. The 82nd was caught at the wall in dead center at Houston’s Daikin Park.
Even with an ugly result, baserunners are making split-second reads on contact quality, and Venable found it hard to take issue with how Vargas read such a drive.
“You don’t want that to happen, but you understand the read and trust the player,” Venable said. “I think every single person thought that that ball was at least halfway up the wall, if not a homer.”
Pham made a different type of peace with it, since the measured nine mph wind blowing right-to-left offered a less-than-satisfying explanation.
“I don’t know, it might’ve just been a dead ball,” Pham said. “Baseball gods will look out for me another time.”
Teel’s mad dash
Speaking of both Statcast and blessings from the baseball gods, before it began its roll down the third base line, Colson Montgomery’s seventh-inning RBI double left the bat at 64 mph; the fourth-slowest postseason extra-base hit since 2015.
With two outs, Kyle Teel was waved home from first on an aggressive send from third base coach Justin Jirschele.
“Jirsch always says, ‘scared money don’t make money,’” said Venable. “When it’s a low run scoring environment, we really needed it.”
It was needed, and also doesn’t work unless Guardians catcher Austin Hedges drops the throw from left field.
“I was dead at arrival,” admitted Teel, but that doesn’t mean he was shocked by the send. “Not at all. I’m fast.”
Rare air for Taylor
On Saturday, Grant Taylor became the sixth pitcher in MLB history to record a postseason save of four innings or more, and the first since Lance McCullers did it in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS. That McCullers outing featured even more curveballs than the 16 Taylor threw.
